Monday, January 12, 2009

Ciabatta bread, which according to Wikipedia literally means, "carpet slipper," (as opposed to hardwood floor slipper) is one of my favorite breads. I've wanted to try a loaf using our no-knead dough and I think it worked. I made an extra wet and sticky batch of dough and here you can see the before and after photos. I will reserve final judgment until slicing however. More later.

Maybe just draw us a picture. I can believe you could forget your most important piece of equipment (?), since your faculties may be frozen by winter's chill, OR perhaps over-imbibing at your Uncle's house, to stay warm, of course.

Bay Area, short-sleeve weather continues..., currently 65, with a high today of 68.

Is the recipe in print somewhere with the directions or do I need to take notes while watching the video? The bread looks great! I haven't had lots of luck with ciabatta, I'm still working on basic Italian.

Just stumbled across your blog and am intrigued by your no knead ciabatta loaf. I've been experimenting with all sorts of no knead recipes lately, most of which call for a dutch oven or some other sort of contraption to steam the loaf for that lovely crust. I saw in another video of yours that you did do a tray with water and even sprayed the loaf while cooking. Is it correct though that for this ciabatta loaf you are putting it in the oven with no water/steam in any way whatsoever? I tried one loaf like that and it turned out horribly, but would love to not have to deal with the steam if possible. Thanks so much in advance for your answer.

Hi Chef John,I'm going to try your ciabatta bread today but was wondering if I'm not here at the 18 hr mark, what happens? Can I wait longer and if so how much longer? Or if I can do the preping at the 18hr mark but need to leave for more than the 2 hour rise time what do I do? Trying to understand what kind of lead way I have with the schedule. Thanks alot.Linda

you can leave longer than 18 hours, but not sure how much longer. A few hours shouldn't really make much difference. The 2nd rise could go longer than 2 hours i guess, but once the loaf is risen it should be baked. FYI- i'm not much of a baking expert and can only vouch for the recipe procedure as shown. good luck!